IT is a midweek replay that Jersey Bulls could have done without.
But they must travel to Knaphill on Tuesday evening after Saturday’s FA Cup clash at Springfield ended in a 1-1 draw.
Given that the Bulls were already without several key players on Saturday – including captain James Querée and striker Lorne Bickley – manager Gary Freeman would have loved to have avoided an extra match in order to give his side time to recover before Saturday’s return to league action.
Winger Miguel Carvalho, who posed plenty of threat down the left-hand side, hobbled off injured midway through the second-half and was limping to the tunnel at the full-time whistle.
Freeman said: ‘We definitely didn’t want a replay but we’ll see what we can get from Tuesday.
‘We have a few injuries and couple of people away so we’ll have to see who we have got available.’
Discussing the injury to Carvalho, the Bulls manager added: ‘The way he plays and takes people on, he’s always liable to get a few knocks and injuries. Hopefully he is OK for Tuesday.
Jersey Bulls had the better of the chances against Knaphill but the visitors were clever – particularly after their equaliser – breaking up the flow of the game and not allowing the hosts to find their rhythm.
There had been hopes that Fraser Barlow’s opener during a dominant first-half for the Bulls may have opened the floodgates but Knaphill dug in and were a threat on the counter-attack.
Jake Hawker’s sensational strike from the corner of the box gave them something to cling on to and they set about frustrating the Bulls.
Freeman said: ‘They play the way they do – that is what they think is the best way to get something from us. They won’t roll over and want to make it difficult and they made it difficult for us in the second-half.
‘I think we were very good for long spells particularly in the first-half. We have not taken the chances we created and 1-0 is always going to be a risk. I am getting a bit fed up of teams scoring worldie goals against us – it was a great strike from them.
‘The game became very scrappy from there and they did well to break up our rhythm. It became a bit disjointed and we could not create too much in the second-half.’
The replay is due to take place at Knaphill’s Redding Way ground at 7.45pm tomorrow.
